Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL) expressed his frustration with fellow House members for “wasting time” when it comes to passing legislation.
After nearly a month in session, the House of Representatives has only been able to pass one bill that President Donald Trump signed into law. Meanwhile, the previous continuing resolution is approaching its deadline.
“First of all, let’s set this record straight. Number one, House leadership has been dragging their feet creating a plan to bring us the president’s agenda quickly,” Donalds said on Fox Business’s Mornings with Maria Bartiromo Wednesday. “So I said look, let’s do two bills, get Tom Homan the money he needs for repatriating illegal aliens to their home country. Let’s get the debt ceiling off of President Trump’s back. Let’s make sure we pass that without having Chuck Schumer have leverage over that situation. Let’s do some money for Defense Department, and then we can do tax policy with spending cuts, energy reforms down the line.”
Trump himself has been in favor of a single budget reconciliation bill. House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) agrees with Trump and predicts this bill could come to fruition as soon as late February, with a hard deadline of Memorial Day.
“House leadership has been dragging their feet. I will also add it’s not just House Freedom Caucus members. There are members in different caucuses in the Republican conference who want mandatory spending cuts,” Donalds said. “House leadership needs to come up with the real strategy. The one they’re working with now, in my view, is not going to work. I’ve been very clear with colleagues on that. This is the first time I talked about it publicly because we are wasting time.”
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The Republican Party holds 218 seats in the House and 53 seats in the Senate, a situation similar to that faced by Trump in the first two years of his first administration.
As speaker, Johnson has won over many Democratic colleagues in the House. Johnson’s continuing resolution, which will fund the government through March 14, was supported by all Democratic lawmakers. Still, 34 Republican representatives and 11 senators voted against the legislation.
